


Dreams So Sweet

by Seamus_Fanigan



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, One Shot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24571525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seamus_Fanigan/pseuds/Seamus_Fanigan
Summary: Magic works even when Hermione sleeps
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Luna Lovegood
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	Dreams So Sweet

The feast was over, the new first years had been sorted into their houses, and now the Gryffindors sat in their common room. It had been a lumpy beginning to the year. Arguments and whispered comments had disturbed the usual house solidarity. Those concerned for their studies and their safety questioned the appointment of Dolores Umbridge as the new defence against the dark arts teacher. Those who toed the ministry line questioned Dumbledore's assertion about Voldemort's return, and by implication doubted Harry Potter's version of last year's events.  
Harry sat on the sofa with Ron and Hermione. He was tense and alert, Ron was staunchly taking his side and glared fiercely at anyone who doubted his friend. Hermione, however, seemed less disturbed than her friends. Fears over the future, worry about Harry, unhappiness with the atmosphere in the common room were there, but they were secondary to her contentment. She was back at Hogwarts, a term of new magic and new discoveries awaited. After a summer of anxiety she felt safe; she was among friends and she was well protected. Despite the negative feelings around the room and despite missing her Mum and Dad, Hermione felt at home.  
The Gryffindors departed in ones and twos off to their dorms, most warily, some with a sort of resigned sorrow. Only Fred and George seemed unmoved by the whole thing and simply blew raspberries and flicked two fingers at those they disagreed with. Hermione took the opportunity to depart when she saw Lavender and Parvati head to the bottom of the staircase that led to the girls' dormitories. Saying goodnight to Ron and Harry, and giving their shoulders a reassuring and companionable squeeze she headed upstairs.  
As she entered she caught the tail end of a conversation between her two dorm mates.  
"Really?" Parvati seemed surprised, "After all these years? Why now?"  
Lavender giggled, "Well he's filled out over the summer, he's all muscly now. And you know what they say about red heads.....they're red hot between the sheets!"  
Hermione shook her head in good humoured exasperation as the two other witches collapsed into giggles. She was well aware that Lavender's constant obsession with boys, and her habit of squealing at the slightest provocation, would become almost unbearable from time to time, but tonight it was just another welcome sign of normality.   
She unpacked her trunk and neatly placed her clothes in their respective drawers. One for knickers, one for bras, one for socks and one for civvies. She hung her cloak on the peg next to her bed and arranged her books on her bedside table. Two beds down Parvati was making almost as neat a job of it as Hermione. Lavender however had taken armfuls of clothes from her trunk and stuffed them willy nilly into whatever drawer had space. Hermione smiled to herself as she anticipated the next morning's muttered swearing as Lavender searched for a matching pair of socks.  
The three witches chatted amicably together as they made themselves ready for bed. It was well past lights out when they tucked themselves in, drew the curtains of their four posters and snuffed the candles. With a deep sigh of contentment Hermione drew the familiar covers up to her neck, wriggled to get comfortable and almost instantly fell asleep.

************************

Hermione awoke with a start. For a moment she had no idea where she was, the dream had been that intense. She moved the curtain of her bed aside and looked out. The dorm was quiet, only the steady breathing of the other witches disturbed the stillness. A cold silver light from the gibbous moon shone through the diamond paned window casting deep black shadows onto the flagstoned floor.  
Flopping back onto her pillow she tried to remember the dream. She remembered happiness, a deep contentment and an all consuming joy. That wasn't what had woken her though. It was the sense of reality about it, a sense that it was fact, that it existed. She tried to figure out what had made it so unusual. There had been someone else in it, not just in it, but fundamental to it. It was this person who had made her feel so perfect. She realised that, in a way she couldn't explain, the other person had actual been in the dream with her. It hadn't been an invasion of her dream, she didn't feel that the other person had forced their way into her sleep, but they had definitely been there. Sharing it with her, sharing her happiness and joy; the reason for her happiness and joy. As she examined the memory she also came to the conclusion that her dream companion had no knowledge themselves that they were there, that it was an unconscious and accidental touching of minds.   
Was the word 'minds' even the right word to use she wondered. 'Hearts' or even 'souls' seemed a more accurate description of the gentle intrusion she had experienced. She tried to remember who the other person had been. At that point she realised that she didn't know, even during the dream she hadn't known. All she had known was that the two of them had been together and that togetherness had been what had filled her dream-self with such a sense of delight.  
Still puzzled, but with no sense of alarm or fear, she snuggled back down and slept undisturbed until the morning.

************************

Hermione puzzled over the dream as she dressed the next morning, she had never experienced anything like it before. There had been a definite touch of magic in the experience. The other participant had been magical as well. It could have been anybody in the castle she thought. That was something else about that dream companion she realised; they had been very close to her in age, definitely not an adult or a first or second year, and that meant another student. Making a mental note to have a quick look in the library about dream magic she headed down for breakfast.  
For the next few days the school routine of lessons and meals and homework occupied her mind. The arguments that had disturbed the first evening back were, if not forgotten, at least not repeated. No one had changed their positions on Voldemort's return, but they withheld any mention of it. It seemed that everyone wanted their school life to be as normal as possible, and very quickly the conversations between them went back to the usual gossip about other students, the staff and the upcoming quidditch games.  
A quick look through the standard work on dream magic had not helped Hermione in her search for understanding and, apart from the memory of being so happy, the details of the experience began to fade. That was until the second week of term when she had the dream again.

************************

She opened her eyes, a smile still on her lips, and stared into the darkness. Looking through the curtains of her bed she again saw only the moonlit stillness of her dormitory and heard only the undisturbed breathing of Lavender and Parvati.  
This time she tried to remember exactly what she had dreamed. No longer as surprised as she had been the first time, she had more success. The dream-meeting with the other person was definitely magical and was definitely not threatening or malicious. The other had not even been aware of the link between them. It was, Hermione realised, more a case of she being in the other's dream rather than the other intruding into hers. Moreover, while the other had no knowledge of their link, Hermione somehow knew that she was welcome.  
As well as the happiness she had experienced she also managed to recall more specific details. There had been the cool, mossy dampness of woodland on a hot summer day. There were memories of suntanned skin and laughter, of holding hands and how right that had felt. A memory of the simple joy to be found merely by being in the other's company. Hermione wondered if that was what it was like to be in love. She also knew, without questioning how, that the link between them was broken and that when she went back to sleep it would not be restored. For a few minutes she had been in another life, as real as the one she was in now as she lay in the dark. She had been in another life, and while she wasn't desperate to get back to it, she knew that the dream would come again some night soon and that she would welcome it.  
Hermione wriggled back down beneath the covers and began to drift back into sleep. Her last waking thought, as her breathing slowed and sleep began to overtake her, was that she still had no idea who the other person had been.

************************

Hermione awoke the next morning determined to try to understand the dreams better. Taking a notebook from her trunk she wrote down everything she could remember about both of the dreams. Being more logical than most magical folk she also wrote down times, dates and other factors from the real world. If she was going to use logic and reason to understand what had been happening to her she needed data, and without knowing what might or might not be important, she needed to record everything. Once she'd finished her notes she placed the book on her bedside table so it would be to hand the next time.  
The term continued and the students were soon settled into the familiar rhythm of school life. The Gryffindor common room was once again the friendly, co-operative place it had always been. The only arguments were about quidditch and who despised Professor Umbridge the most. The only things that broke the calm were Fred and George's practical jokes and the occasional mishaps of first years as, for the first time in their lives, they had the freedom to experiment with their magic.

************************

Hermione's dreams were a regular occurrence now, but followed a pattern she hadn't yet discovered. She had lots of notes and the whole picture was beginning to emerge.  
In her dreams she was in love. The person with whom she shared her dreams was in love. They were in love with each other and deeply happy and content. The identity of her dream companion who, for the sake of brevity in her notes, she had taken to calling 'X', was still a complete mystery. Apart from the briefest recollection of things like smiles and eyes and hair and suntans she was no closer to identifying her dream love than she had been on that first night. She knew that she loved the way X smiled at her, the way the corners of their mouth turned up and their eyes crinkled at the corners. She knew that X's skin was soft and that she liked to stroke it. She knew that she liked to run her fingers through their hair when their head was resting in her lap. But for for all this knowledge the colour of that hair or those eyes remained obscure.  
Although none of the dreams had been at all erotic, Hermione also knew that there was a deeply satisfying physical side to their relationship. She and X were lovers in every sense of the word, and the intimacy they shared during sex was an extension of how completely their lives were joined together.  
It had taken half a dozen dreams before she had understood that the snapshots that she recalled once she had woken were not in any particular order. They were faint, like all memories are when compared to the original, and they were memories of what was yet to come. There was, Hermione understood now, a sense of foretelling in the dreams. As if the longing that X felt for them to be true would actually make them true, yet even that was confused. There was also a sense that because they would happen, X longed for them to happen.  
Hermione continued the term, working hard, helping Harry and diligently performing her prefect duties. Her dreams she kept to herself. Welcoming them when she had them, knowing that somehow she would find a way, eventually of discovering the identity of her lover. Maybe one day even contacting them and letting them know that for weeks they had shared their lives together as truly as if they had been awake.

************************

Her studies of the magic of dreams had helped very little. The books detailed a few spells that could be cast to interact in dreams, but most if them were either for mischief or dark purposes. They also required a conscious effort on the part of the person casting the spell and that didn't fit at all with Hermione's instinctive understanding that X had no knowledge of her presence. She had found drawings of a protective talisman in one book that guaranteed security from spells in dreams and had transfigured a silver sickle into one before placing it under her pillow. Three nights later the dream had come again and Hermione was now sure that X was innocent of any wilful interference. Hermione was almost sure their dream link was caused by something akin to a magical overflow and entirely accidental.  
She found more help in legends and poetry and literature than from the dry, dusty text books. These were full of similar examples, whether in ancient myths or as a plot device in plays, it seemed that through the ages there had been instances of lovers sharing their lives while asleep.  
The night after the first meeting of Dumbledore's Army in the room of requirement Hermione's dream had taken on a much more erotic flavour. The love and tenderness were still as intense as always but this time she awoke with a memory of tan lines. The pale roundness of a bare bottom contrasted with the deep suntan of a naked back. Tanned legs and a light cotton summer dress. Pale breasts with coral pink nipples above a smooth tanned belly. Hermione lay in the dark and realised for the first time that when she slept she was in love with another girl. The revelation was, to her surprise, no surprise at all. She was so used to the feelings that she and X (or should that now be Miss X) shared that she accepted it without question. Hermione went back to sleep hoping that she was getting nearer to finding out Miss X's identity.

************************

The dreams continued through the Christmas holidays and into the spring term. Mostly the vague dreams of happiness, but from time to time the more intense dreams that included the more physical aspects of her relationship with Miss X. Hermione still took notes when she awoke and knew she was getting closer to identifying the pattern their appearance followed. Once she understood that, she hoped, she would be able to finally identify her lover. She had found, tucked away in an obscure travel book, a charm she thought might help. In the late thirteenth century a magical explorer and trader named Marko the Venetian had travelled to the orient and brought back much new magical knowledge to Europe. In his book, Il Milione, she found a spell that would allow a witch or wizard to influence their own dreams.   
Hermione had tried it one night. It took a long time to cast and she'd had to leave her homework incomplete to give herself enough time but it worked. She had been able to enter her own dreams in a lucid and completely controlled way. Influencing what happened and directing the course of events. Miss X had not joined her that night however, and Hermione knew that casting the spell every night in hope would leave her far behind in her work as well as too tired to catch up the lost ground.  
She had resolved though that once she understood the factors that triggered the love dreams she would use it on a night that her predictions told her a dream would occur.

************************

It took many months for Hermione to crack the pattern, and rather than by a careful analysis of her meticulously kept data, the revelation occurred whilst she slept.  
She had woken one morning near the end of the spring term and simply known what caused the love dreams to happen. It was the moon. Not the phase she was in, that had been one of Hermione's earliest lines of research, but whether she shone clear that night. Cloudless moonlit nights were the trigger. When the castle lay silent and bathed in silver moonlight she and her lover would connect as they slept. The more intense and physical dreams occurred when these nights coincided with a meeting of Dumbledore's Army. Hermione wondered if it was a witch in the DA, if it was their close proximity during these meetings that triggered the erotic flavour she had enjoyed. If that were the case then that would narrow the field. Her lover could not be a Slytherin as there were none in the DA. It also ruled out Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones as they were in Hufflepuff and Hermione shared Herbology with them. She checked her notes to be sure. No, there was no correlation between herbology lessons and the dreams.  
If that was true then it could only mean that her lover was a Ravenclaw. She saw Gryffindor members of the DA all the time; studied and relaxed and ate with them. If DA meetings were so important then even fellow Gryffindors had to be ruled out.  
That left only four possible candidates; Cho Chang, Marrietta Edgecombe, Luna Lovegood and Padma Patil.  
Hermione determined to try her dream charm the next time there was a clear night following a DA meeting. The extra intensity of these dreams would, she was sure, increase the chances of success.

************************

The weather was not kind to Hermione and it was well into the summer term before she had her chance. One evening after a DA meeting she looked though the library window at the evening sky and not a cloud was present. The sky was darkening to a deep violet and the half moon was just showing above the horizon an hour after supper. She packed up her books and walked back to Gryffindor tower. She climbed the stairs to her dorm and changed for bed. Sitting up behind the closed curtains of her four poster she cast the dream charm and snuggled down to sleep.  
Hermione's lover came to her again that night. Naked and tanned she kissed her as Hermione ran her fingers through long hair. That ruled out Marietta; her hair only came down to her shoulders. The kiss finished and Hermione looked into pale blue eyes crinkled in a smile.  
Luna. It was Luna Lovegood.  
Hermione wove the newly found knowledge into her thoughts as she slept. She let the understanding flow back, silently calling Luna's name and silently telling her that she had been willingly sharing her love for months.  
The dream fractured instantly. Hermione was almost overwhelmed by feelings of regret and embarrassment and through the chaotic shards of emotion was the overriding apology. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry....."  
Hermione awoke. She had to find Luna and tell her it was alright, tell her she was happy about their dreamtime meetings. Tell her that she loved her back with the same intensity that she'd felt from the blonde Ravenclaw for all these months.  
Hermione knew where she'd be. The revelation of their identities had forged a connection that now existed while she was awake. Hermione quietly got out of bed and put on her dressing gown and slippers. She slipped silently from the dorm and passed through the portrait of the fat lady who dozed, undisturbed by Hermione's passing.  
Hermione was halfway down the main staircase when she saw the figure, blonde hair tousled from sleep, walk barefoot across the flagstones of the entrance hall and slip out through the front doors of the castle. Hermione silently followed her through the doors and down the front lawn to the edge of the lake.  
In the still summer night Luna stood dejected and gazed over the silver ripples of the lake at the moon that hung in the warm night sky.  
Silently Hermione walked up and stood beside her, taking Luna's hand in hers. Luna looked at her, her face a mask of sorrow in the moonlight.  
"I'm sorry Hermione. I didn't mean to...." She began.  
"It's alright Luna, if we hadn't been together in dreams I would never had known. If it wasn't for your magic we wouldn't be here now and I wouldn't be able to tell you."  
"Tell me what?" A look of hope was spreading across Luna's face and her hair began to ripple in the still air.  
"To tell you that I love you Luna."  
"I love you too Hermione Granger." Luna replied as her eyes crinkled in a smile.

************************

The two witches were a couple. They did not broadcast the fact but neither did they keep it a secret. Their friends knew and were happy for them. Each was connected to the other in such a way that they were always aware of their lover's feelings. They still shared their dreams when the moon shone clear over the castle and shared time with each other while awake.  
During the battle in the Department of Mysteries they had fought side by side, each instinctively protecting the other. During the following summer holidays they had met in their dreams and their love had grown. How could it be otherwise when each was so deeply connected to the other?  
Together they made it through the troubles of Hermione's sixth year and again fought side by side as the Death Eaters invaded the castle and Snape killed Dumbledore.  
They met in person only once that subsequent summer, at the Weasley house for Bill and Fleur's wedding where they shared a dance. Luna knew, as did Ginny, that she wouldn't see her lover for a long time. She kissed Hermione goodbye knowing that they were together completely and that distance had no effect on their love for each other.  
They next met at Malfoy Manor after Hermione's capture. Later Luna wept as she cradled Hermione's tortured body in her arms in Shell Cottage. Wept for her lover's pain and at her joy in their reunion.  
During the final battle at Hogwarts they again fought together and were invincible. So in tune were they that they fought as one. After Harry's victory they stood in each others' arms amid the rubble and chaos and grieved for those that had fallen.  
Through all the months since their meeting by the moonlit lake they had never consummated their love. Kissing and embracing they knew that the time hadn't yet come. The events of their dreams had been a premonition, a magical echo of a future time. They were on a path that would lead to that final ecstatic coupling and were content to follow where it led.

************************

The summer following the death of Voldemort was one of the best in living memory. It was as if the Earth was welling up with a goodness that had been supressed by darkness and was now free.  
In late August, knowing the time was right, Hermione apparated over to Ottery St. catchpole and met Luna outside her rook shaped house. Xenophilus was away looking for dwarf erumpents and they had the house to themselves.  
Luna greeted Hermione with her warm crinkle-eyed smile and they kissed in greeting. Luna stood barefoot in a lightweight summer dress, her bare arms and legs and face were burnt to a deep brown by the sun. Hermione knew that she had been sunbathing in a bikini and there were areas the sun hadn't touched.  
The time was nearly on them now and they went for a walk in the nearby woods. In the woods that Hermione recalled from her second ever dream she walked hand in hand with Luna through the mossy coolness as the dappled light played over them. They kissed and laughed and wiggled bare toes in the deep moist leaves.  
As the sun began to set they headed back to Luna's house and went upstairs to her bedroom. The paintings on the walls still showed the familiar faces and the word 'friends' that twined through the pictures. The painting of Hermione seemed to shine more brightly than the others and the word 'friends' beneath it had been replaced with the word 'together'.  
The time had come and Hermione slipped the dress from Luna's shoulders and it crumpled around the blonde witch's ankles. Luna slipped her knickers down her legs and stood, at last, as the dreams had foretold, naked in front of her. Tanned to a deep brown by the summer sun, except where the bikini had covered her, she stood before Hermione smiling.   
Hermione removed her own clothes and stood naked, slowly running her fingers through Luna's long blonde hair.  
"Now?" she asked.  
"And for always." Luna replied.  
They lay together and were, at last, completely, indivisibly, as one.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for making it to the end.  
> If anyone leaves kudos - thank you. Thank you so much.
> 
> Comments welcome


End file.
